"Stop lollygagging." John sharply turned his head back to Wendy, who constantly sidetracked to look at the architecture. She looked into broken buildings and windows, searching for valuables.

"Nope. Nothing but corpses in this one."

Lucy brought her hand back, and boxed Wendy in the side of the head with an openhanded smack. "John's right. It could be dangerous. Hurry up."

Wendy rubbed her head, her feelings a bit scathed. John sniggered, and Wendy gave him an angry glare that could burn grass. John turned away, whistling.

Lucy looked around, and stopped walking.

She could hear something moving. John stopped as well, observing. Their surroundings were relatively bleak. The abandoned outskirts of a village, surrounding a massive castle and coliseum in the center of the town.

John looked around. "Why do you suppose everyone is dead in their HOMES? If something came to kill them, some would have likely fled."

"...I don't have an answer." Lucy kept looking around. She could hear footsteps. She could see their control of the situation slowly unseating itself.

There was someone here. Maybe two, maybe more. They were quiet, but they had failed to fly under Lucy's radar.

"John, have you ever been ambushed?"

John smiled. "Many, many times. I'll admit, they did a good job staying out of sight." John put his hand on the handle of his blade.

The three of them came from separate angles. One had been concealed in a house. He kicked the door open, and drew a longsword. His eyes were angled, and he had pale skin and black hair, features shared by his compatriots. He lurched towards Lucy, who was nearest to him.

Wendy's foe was a man with longer hair, tied in a braid that reached the seat of his pants. He burst from a haystack, drawing his weapons. He had a pair of knives, drawing them from holsters on his boots. Wendy stepped back, perturbed as the man began circling her, a hard, angry expression on his thin face.

John drew his sword. The healthiest of the three held a long pole with a curved blade at the tip. He pounced down from the roof of one of the cottages, his blade ready.

Lucy drew first blood. The longsword wielder moved in to close. Lucy swung one of her knives, knocking the blade to the ground. From there, she took the offense. Her hands were fast as arrows, as she swung her blades. She took a cut out of his cheek.

A missed strike split the bangs of his hair. He planted his boots and swung his sword, but she ducked. He stepped back into the street, Lucy keeping on his heels. Metal clashed as they fought.

Lucy weaved under his blade and slashed at him. He blocked the blade, and her knife, to her horror, snapped in half. "DAMMIT!" Lucy backed up, armed with only one knife.

Her opponent stepped forward, flipping his hair back. He hissed as he swiped the air.

"...Hey now. You want to fight me? I didn't sign on for that."

John's blade clashed with the enemy warrior's naginata. He'd fought against weapons like this before. They had both range and cutting power. He was forced on defense, his sword defensively blocking each swing and jab.

A near miss swiped his shoulder. He took a light cut to his arm.

"I said leave me alone!" Wendy backed up, as her opponent swung his knives. He hissed and spat, smiling.

The knife wielder sprang forward. In an instant, Wendy was gone. He turned, and she was behind him. She rubbed her cheek with on hand, and her mouth filled to the brim with clear, tan fluid. She spat it, and the lot of it spewed from her mouth, splashing the knife wielder in the head, neck, and shoulders.

She had converted her saliva, and a lot of it, into pure, grain alcohol.

She clicked her teeth, and a spark ignited, flying to the man's face. The top of his shoulders, his hair, and his entire face erupted into flame. Wendy huffed. "Told you."

Lucy fell backwards, and rolled to the side, avoiding another slash. The man was an artist with a blade, but she was fast enough to avoid each attack.

She planted her feet, and brought her arm back. She threw her knife as hard as she could, but he sidestepped the attack, leaving her no weapon.

"Damn..." Lucy stood, her hands open. She needed to disarm him, or she was sunk.

John swung his blade down, and the man's spear blocked it. As much as he didn't want to show it, days of travel and hunger had weakened him. He didn't have full access to his strength. The other man did. He'd been eating healthy, and resting. He was hydrated, and had stamina to spare. He forced John back, looking him in the eye.

Lucy's ears pricked up. For a moment, she lost track of her own opponent. "Selk'a? Li'hei? Med'i dow!"

John wasn't listening, but his opponent turned to her, dumbstruck.

"Woman, you speak my-"

John shoved his attacker back as he spoke. He swung Dentum with enough force to drive him down, and charged. He moved quickly, planting his feet and swinging again. Off balance, his attacker was forced to back off.

Lucy took advantage of the pause to land a hard punch on her own opponent. It did little damage, but it gave her enough time to target his wrist. She chopped the bones of his forearm, his grip loosening.

In an instant, she had relieved him of his sword. She brought it around, and took his head.

The tables turned, their leader turned and fled before John could give chase. He turned back for a moment, looking at Lucy, still confused.

A mainlander, speaking his mother tongue?

Unacceptable.

John sheathed his sword. Lucy seethed. "Dammit. My knives were USELESS. I would have taken him down sooner if I had a decent weapon."

"You have that sword now." John smiled. "You did well."

"You saw them coming." Wendy interjected.

"You see EVERYTHING coming. You're either incredibly well learned, or you're clearly omnilingual. I've seen you read John's language, Selkie, and you can understand, and SPEAK, a specific dialect of Xiao that is rarely taught to Mainlanders." Wendy pointed to Lucy's decapitated foe. "Not to mention, you can fight almost as well as a Selkie, and you're more than a match for a trained Xiao bandit."

Wendy looked her in the eye. "Who taught you to do these things?"

"No...body. It's just stuff that I can do." Lucy scratched her head, pulling the man's scabbard off of his belt. "Stop staring at me."

Wendy observed her confused, albeit fearless leader. "Powerful eyesight, omnilingualism, fighting ability...I'm starting to get a better idea of what you are, Lucy."

When she was able to fight her first fight without any real problems I assumed there was some sort of background we didn't know. I assumed it was something simple, like an ex-apprentice of a swordsman or something.

I wasn't expecting her to play a role in the plot, which is what it seems like now.